Israeli civilians killed after rocket hits soccer area in Golan Heights

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No less than eleven civilians have been killed on Saturday after a rocket struck northern Israel, within the deadliest incident since hostilities started between the nation and Lebanon-based Hizbollah final October.  

The rocket struck a soccer pitch within the Druze city of Majdal Shams, within the occupied Golan Heights, the place kids and youngsters have been congregating, in line with Israeli well being authorities. Twenty folks have been injured.

Daniel Hagari, Israel’s chief navy spokesperson, stated it was the deadliest assault on Israeli civilians since Hamas’s October 7 assault that triggered the conflict in Gaza.

“We witnessed nice destruction once we arrived on the soccer area . . . the scene was ugly,” stated an Israeli first responder.

The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) blamed Iran-backed Hizbollah. “Based on all our intelligence and assessments, it is a Hizbollah assault,” stated an Israeli navy official.

In an uncommon transfer, Hizbollah denied accountability for the strike. However the group controls southern Lebanon and has been buying and selling cross-border hearth with Israel for practically 10 months.

Hizbollah “had completely nothing to do with the incident and categorically denies all false allegations on this regard,” the group stated in a press release.

Hizbollah started to fireplace on northern Israel the day after Hamas militants attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7 final yr, saying it was performing in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group.

The rocket that hit Majdal Shams was one in all dozens of projectiles and drones fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Saturday afternoon, in line with Israeli officers. Hizbollah stated it had focused a number of Israeli navy installations in north-eastern Israel and the Golan Heights in retaliation for Israeli air strikes on a number of Lebanese border villages earlier within the day.

One strike on the village of Kfar Kila, which Israel stated was geared toward a “terrorist cell” and weapons storage facility, reportedly killed three Hizbollah members.

Based on Israeli knowledge, earlier than Saturday’s assault 29 Israelis, together with 11 civilians, had been killed in northern Israel for the reason that begin of the Gaza conflict.

Greater than 350 Hizbollah fighters, together with some mid-to-high rating officers and commanders, and greater than 100 Lebanese civilians have been killed within the hostilities to this point, in line with an FT estimate. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to carry consultations along with his safety chiefs afterward Saturday, in line with his workplace. The premier, who remains to be within the US after final week addressing the US Congress and assembly President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and ex-President Donald Trump, stated he was looking for to return to Israel sooner than deliberate.

Regardless of months of rising hostilities, the tensions between Israel and Hizbollah haven’t but escalated into an all-out conflict. But the battle on the Israel-Lebanon frontier has displaced some 200,000 folks.

The Lebanese militant group has vowed to proceed its assaults till the conflict in Gaza ends. For his or her half, Israeli officers have stated that they’re dedicated to returning the residents of northern Israel again to their houses, both by means of US-backed diplomacy or through “different means,” as Netanyahu has put it.

Earlier on Saturday, round 30 folks have been killed in IDF air strikes which focused a faculty in central Gaza housing displaced folks, in line with well being authorities within the Hamas-run enclave.

The Israeli navy stated Hamas militants have been utilizing the Khadija college as a “hiding place to direct and plan . . . assaults” and to retailer weapons.

The assault got here after the IDF introduced it was additional “adjusting” an Israeli-designated humanitarian “secure zone” within the southern Gaza metropolis of Khan Younis, forward of a deliberate offensive within the space. Final week Israel renewed operations within the metropolis, shrinking the “secure zone” and calling on Gazans to evacuate to the close by Al-Mawasi coastal strip.

“Remaining on this space has change into harmful,” the IDF stated in a press release on Saturday.

Gaza ceasefire talks have been set to renew on Sunday at a summit in Rome, with the participation of US CIA chief Invoice Burns, the pinnacle of Israel’s Mossad David Barnea and Egyptian and Qatari officers.

Negotiations have stalled for a number of months as a result of elementary gaps between Israel and Hamas. Israel on Saturday supplied the US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators with an official response to the most recent draft proposal, in line with an Israeli official.